The Jaws of Madness
by Master-Magician
Summary: Ben awakens in Bristol Cove, but it is not the Bristol Cove he knows. An eerie fog has settled over the landscape, the town's streets lie deserted. Ben is all alone. Or is he? Hunted by a terror spawned from his own darkest nightmares, Ben must face down his own inner demons if he ever wishes to escape The Jaws of Madness.
1. Into the Jaws of Madness

**That finale. The whole thing was just… ouch. Seriously, like one gut punch after another right up until the end. And now we have to wait a whole blasted year before we get anymore. Ladies and gentlemen, it is going to be a long wait.**

 **Until then we still have fanfiction at least, eh? I know I have a number of works already in progress, so hopefully I'll be here for quite some time.**

 **Unlike my other stuff, this will be a multi-chapter. I'm still working on where exactly to take it, but I have the start/end result planned out. I just need to figure out how we get there, and just how far to take it.**

 **Without further ado, I bid you join me down the rabbit hole. You're going to quickly discover why I used that particular phrase.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

"Hello?" Ben called out into the empty street.

No answer.

"Hello?" Ben tried again. "Anyone there?"

Where did everybody go? Ben had spent his entire childhood, and the majority of his adult life, here in Bristol Cove, and never had he seen it so empty. Every street was deserted, no lights or power worked anywhere that Ben could tell.

As if the situation could get any creepier, a dense fog had settled over the town. Blanketing everything in its grim pall. Ben could barely see ten feet in front of him. This didn't seem like regular fog either. Just being in it left an ugly sense of foreboding.

Were Ben a superstitious person, he would say the fog's presence was a bad omen.

Every time Ben yelled into the mist, he would be met only with silence. How many hours had he been doing this? Ever since he…

Wait, how long had he been at this?

Not for the first time, Ben struggled to remember how this started. The last thing he could remember clearly was waking up on the floor of his place, and even that was hazy at best. What was he doing before then?

Before Ben could dig deeper into his memory, a lancing bolt of agony shot right through his skull. Like a spike being driven through his temple. Vision swimming, Ben almost blacked out. He would have fallen had he not managed to catch himself on a nearby parked car.

Sitting on the hood, Ben forced himself to remain still until the pain passed.

Evidently, thinking too hard could hurt you, or at least trying to remember too hard. Who would have thought?

Taking a deep breath, Ben stood up from the car, his equilibrium restored. Whatever was going on with Bristol Cove, Ben wasn't going to figure it out by sitting in the street.

An idea came to Ben's mind then, one that made him feel like an idiot for not considering it before.

Whipping out his cell phone, Ben instinctively went to call Maddie. His thumb hesitated over the call button, recalling all too well how their parting had gone. It may not be the best idea to call his… were they even a couple anymore? Did she want to speak with him yet?

What was he thinking? Something terrible happened to Bristol Cove that he couldn't remember, and Ben was seriously worried about personal feelings?

Ben slammed the green button so hard his finger hurt.

"I'm in the middle of Bristol Cove!" Ben groaned, holding the phone aloft. "How the hell do I not have signal!"

Ben resumed his foggy trek through Bristol Cove, watchful of his phone for the tiniest bar of service.

To make matters worse, his car refused to start. There was no rational reason for this either, it was like the car chose not to work. A preposterous notion, but Ben had no other theories that made sense. Unless a miracle occurred, he was stuck walking.

Ben had been alternating between calling out for any people and checking is phone when he noticed something very wrong.

Taking a good, hard look at his phone's screen, Ben saw the time hadn't moved since he last checked. The glowing screen read one-seventeen, exactly like it did ten minutes ago. The fog might be disorienting, but there was no way he had been walking around only a few seconds.

"What on earth…" Ben stopped to watch the screen, counting seconds as he did so. He gave up when his count hit one hundred, the one-seventeen remaining in place.

Thinking the screen was froze, he went into his contacts and text history. After scrolling around for a while to confirm that nothing was frozen, when he returned to the main page, he found the time still unchanged. Not even turning it off and on did anything.

Ben frantically screamed, panic starting to rise. "Somebody, anybody?"

Ben went from a brisk walk, to a full sprint. Checking windows, cars, anything a person could be concealed behind for any sign of his town's residents. There was someone around, there had to be!

There was nothing, only an eerie silence that permeated the whole town.

It was subtle at first, a quiet hum that danced on the edge of Ben's perception. Slowly, it grew in intensity until Ben could hear it more clearly. A quiet melody that Ben felt more than heard. There might have been words behind it, but he couldn't tell, not for sure.

Whatever it was, it was oddly familiar. Familiar, and deeply disturbing, for some odd reason.

Good or bad, it was a sign of life in an otherwise lifeless town. Ben just needed to find it. If he could, it might lead to more people. Hopefully, they would know more than he did at the moment.

"Can you hear me?" Ben's attempt to locate the source of the sound was an abysmal failure. No matter what direction he went, the tune didn't get louder or softer. It was almost as if it was coming from all around at once. "I hear you. Where are you?"

Giving up on that objective, Ben reevaluated his options. Maybe the town had to be quickly evacuated for some reason, and he missed it, somehow.

Maddie might be angry at him still, but surely she would have made some mention of leaving town. Helen, his dad, any of the people Ben knew. Somebody would have called or texted him.

There was also the possibility that nobody had been able to send him a message. They could have left a written on instead for him to find.

A goal in mind to focus his thoughts, Ben took another look at his surroundings. It was difficult to navigate with all the fog, but if Ben read that sign correctly…

Helen's shop should be two blocks over. It was certainly closer than Pownall Seafood, Maddie and Dale's place, or Xander's. As good a place as any to start.

If people were indeed hiding indoors, he might find both Ryn and Helen there. A mermaid and partial mermaid with one stone.

At the thought of Ryn, Ben felt his insides twisting into knots. Ben and Ryn hadn't exactly parted all that well, either. Maddie had left in frustration and anger, Ryn in sorrow and regret. He was the last person they needed to see, but Ben had to try.

At the very least to make sure they were all safe.

Yeah… make sure Ryn was safe, like that line of thinking had served him well in the past. Might be better if he just said screw it and took the extra time to hike to Xander's. At least the two men had reconciled, somewhat.

For the love of… no more second guessing! Ben was going to Helen's first because it was closer, and that was final.

Ben didn't bother sticking to the streets at this point. He cut right though alleyways and backyards, the latter in the hope of being caught and scolded by somebody for trespassing. No such luck.

With every step, Ben felt that sound digging under his skin. The volume never changed, but it was beginning to grate on his nerves. It was so familiar, though. Like a faint recollection buried deep within his mind that he couldn't seem to recall.

"Just shut up, already!" Ben howled into the fog, patience running thin.

Ben didn't know why he thought that might actually do something. It didn't, of course. The song continued on, much to Ben's annoyance. He did his best to shut it out, for now at least.

"H…Helen?" An exhausted Ben called out when he reached Helen's shop. He ran most of the way here, lungs burning with exertion. Fatigue was good, Ben couldn't hear that damn song if he was too tired to do so. "Helen? It's Ben!"

Nothing.

The shop was quieter than a grave, the electricity offline just like everywhere else. It never occurred to Ben how spooky an antique shop could be after hours, if this counted as after hours.

Hoping to find some kind of clue, Ben rummaged about Helen's desk. He made sure not to make too bad of a mess of the papers and small objects. She'd give him an earful later if she found out he trashed her workspace. It wound up being a fruitless search, there were notes, but nothing addressed to him or giving any hint what was going on.

It was a good sign when Ben found the door to Helen's apartment open a crack. Unless she was home, Helen kept the knob securely locked, even while working. She had to be here somewhere.

Turned out, she wasn't. The apartment was every bit as empty as the rest of Bristol Cove. No Helen and Ryn, no message for Ben, just that same blank silence as outside.

Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Just like everything else in this whole damn town!

"WHERE IS EVERYBODY?" Ben roared at the top of his lungs once he was back out onto the street.

"Hello, Ben."

* * *

 **Shorter than my usual, yes, but I wanted to give something like an intro to set the ball rolling. Some of this I'm making as I go.**

 **As always, reviews/comments are precious. Especially now that the show is on it's between season hiatus. They would be really helpful for keeping me going.**


	2. Old Faces

**This story seems to be getting little in the way of readers compared to my other work. Maybe Siren readers just plain don't like darker content, if so this story may be in trouble. I don't know, maybe I'm just searching for something that doesn't exist, wouldn't be the first time.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

"Maddie?" Ben was dumbstruck. He had to be hallucinating, there was no way she was here! And yet she was, Maddie was right there looking exactly how Ben remembered.

It hadn't been that long since Ben had last seen her, but it felt like an eternity.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see y…" Ben was so overcome with joy at seeing his girlfriend, relationship troubles or no, in this bizarre place, that he was rushing forth to embrace her before even thinking about it.

The sharp smack of Maddie's hand making contact with Ben face sent a resounding echo across the quiet streets.

"Don't touch me." Ben stumbled back, not so much from the physical blow, but from the sheer ice in Maddie's voice. "After all you've done, you don't get to touch me."

"Maddie?" Ben absentmindedly rubbed at his stinging cheek. "W… what?"

"Did I say you could talk to me?" Maddie snarled, finger jabbing Ben roughly in the chest repeatedly.

Backing up with each hit, Ben was unable to speak. Granted, he and Maddie hadn't been on the best of terms, there was no reason for her to be this hostile. He'd seen her angry before, but this was an entirely new Maddie Ben had never seen before.

Ben held his hands up in what he hoped was a placating gesture only to see something red on his hands. In a panic, he scrambled away from Maddie, mindlessly flicking both to dislodge whatever it was. It didn't take Ben long to realize it was paint, fresh, and still dripping from his digits.

Wait… paint wasn't this sticky or this… Ben felt the bile rising in his throat when he figured out what the substance actually was.

Blood.

"Maddie!" Ben felt his alarm swelling, now fueled with terror. "What's… where are you going?"

Ben's fear was replaced with confusion when he saw Maddie walking away.

"Why are you talking to me?" Maddie stopped to look over her shoulder, eyes harder than stone. "Don't you want to go find your precious Ryn? Seeing as how you love her so much more than me."

"Ryn?" Ben was even more confused now, something Ben hadn't thought of as possible. "She's here, too?"

"Why don't you go have a chat with her?" Maddie laughed, a hollow sound that was just so… wrong. "I'm sure she'd just love to see you."

"Maddie, hang on!" Ben called out to his again retreating girlfriend but she simply ignored him.

Enraged or not, Maddie was the only other living thing Ben had encountered besides himself since he could remember. Letting her walk away was not an option. Seeing no other choice, he gave chase.

With her head start, Ben was barely able to make out Maddie's silhouette through the haze. He ran as fast as he could push his legs to take him yet made no progress. With each step he took, Maddie seemed to take three.

Maddie was walking and he was running. So how on earth was she managing to outpace him!

"Maddie!" Ben yelled, already losing her in the fog. "Maddie! Where did you go? Maddie!"

Stopping to catch his breath, Ben strained his ears to hear. With it being so quiet, maybe he could hear her footsteps. Ben had forgotten about the mysterious song that continued to surround him. It dashed any hopes he had of hearing Maddie's movements.

"Huh?" Ben saw that the blood on his hands had vanished, no sign left that it had ever been there. Was that all just in his imagination?

Forcing himself to calm down, he considered what Maddie's presence meant. He definitely wasn't the only one in Bristol Cove, Maddie was here, and god knows who else.

What was it Maddie had said? She didn't say it outright, but the implication was that Ryn was in Bristol Cove right now. Okay, that was something Ben could work with. At least he could, once he figured out where to possibly go now.

"You look a little lost, Ben."

Head turning so fast he almost had whiplash, Ben found none other than Aldon Decker sitting on a nearby bench. He wasn't looking at Ben directly, instead he stared at something far off, occasionally taking a sip from a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Decker?" While one of the last people Ben wanted to see right now, he knew beggars couldn't be choosers. "What are you doing here?"

"That's the first question you ask?" Decker looked up then, chuckling to himself.

"What else would I…" Realization caught up to Ben when his head reminded him about a very important fact. "You're dead. You… you died."

"Did I? Hmm…" Decker looked off in the distance again, as if mulling the idea over in his head. "Yes, that does sound about right."

"Then how are we talking right now?" Ben had a feeling he knew at least one possible answer, but it wasn't exactly one he wanted to consider. "Seeing as how you're dead and I'm not."

"Have you considered the possibility that you're dead, too?"

* * *

Enough was enough.

Helen was fine with letting people make their own decisions, such was their right, but there came a point when outside intervention was required. Such as right now, for instance.

"I'm going out for a bit. You need anything from town?" Helen paused to regard Ryn. The mermaid was seated at the large picture window in her living room, eyes staring out at the horizon.

"I am fine." Ryn took her eyes off the landscape for only a fraction of a second. Her tone lacked much of its usual vigor. She sounded so down and defeated, just hearing it made Helen sad on her behalf. If ever there were a depressed mermaid, Ryn was the spitting image.

Since returning to live with Helen, this was where Ryn spent most of her free time. She would help the older woman around the store during the day, but evenings were spent right here. Sitting in a window and watching the horizon.

Ryn's body might be in Helen's apartment, but her mind was in a certain houseboat down by the water. She desperately wanted to go back, but stubbornly clung to the belief she was doing Ben a favor by staying away.

Ryn didn't tell Helen any of this, she didn't have to. Helen had been around long enough to know when someone was pining for someone. Though what actually ran through the mermaid's mind at these times was a mystery to even Helen. She clearly missed Ben dearly, Maddie too, but there was something else that went beyond missing a dear friend.

This had been strike one. Strike two came when Maddie arrived at the shop a couple days into Ryn's new living arrangements. She'd pretended to look around the store before approaching Helen to ask how Ryn was doing. When Helen offered to go get her so woman and mermaid could talk, Maddie was quick to refuse. She didn't want to see Ryn but wanted to know if she was doing alright.

Even now, Helen wasn't sure how Maddie was feeling at the mention of the mermaid. Ryn did accidentally destroy Ben and Maddie's relationship, though describing it in such a way was unfair to Ryn. Regardless, Ryn wasn't Maddie's favorite person right now, and she had no desire to even see her, let alone talk.

The true strike two was when Maddie let slip she hadn't seen Ben since their separation. While this was understandable, it was a huge red flag for Helen. Neither Ryn nor Maddie had been looking after Ben, whom at this point was no doubt suffering withdrawals from the siren song. The effects of which could be unpredictable and potentially dangerous.

It was not hopeless, though. From what Helen had been able to gather, Ben and Xander managed to patch things up and were on good terms again. As long as Ben had at least one person somewhat looking after him, he'd be fine.

Strike three was running into Xander at the store and finding out he hadn't seen Ben for several days. Ben had become withdrawn and distant when Xander last saw him, his calls were going unanswered, and Xander was unable to go see him in person because of troubles with his ship's crew.

What began as red flags became full blaring alarm bells.

The proverbial last straw had broken the camel's back. If nobody else was going to check on Ben, then Helen would have to do it herself.

Helen didn't have much in the way of living relatives these days, at least not close ones. She'd always known about her family connection to the Pownalls but it hadn't meant that much for a long time. Now that the secret was out in the open, Helen almost felt a familial obligation to look after Ben. No matter how small the percentage, they were family.

"Ben?" Helen arrived at Ben's houseboat at record time. The man's car was out front, but the door was locked. The former a good sign he was present, the latter a bad sign because he never locked the door when he was home.

Knocking on the door again yielded no results. Fishing out her spare key, grateful Ben had given her one sometime back just before he and Maddie split, Helen unlocked the door and stepped inside.

"Ben, you home?" The place was quiet, unnervingly so.

The first sign of wrongness was the shattered glass on the carpet nearby. Checking the back of the door, Helen saw the fresh scarring. Was somebody throwing kitchenware at the door?

Before Helen could look further, she caught sight of the body.

"Ben!" Rushing as fast as her older bones would allow, Helen crossed the distance into the bedroom area where Ben lay sprawled across the floor.

Ben's chest was moving with a slow intake of breath, but only barely. Cuts and bruises marred his hands, with a particularly nasty gash crossing his forehead and temple. None of the wounds looked particularly fresh, the blood having dried and crusted upon his far too pale skin.

Scrambling for her phone, Helen dialed 911. "911? I need an ambulance…"

Decker burst into laughter at Ben's horrified expression. "Relax, Ben. You're not dead. Not yet, at least."

"Then care to explain what's going on? Where am I? And why are you here?" Ben was desperate for answers, far too many questions swam within his thoughts.

'We're in Bristol Cove, your home town." Decker held his arms up to indicate their surroundings.

"Yeah, thanks captain obvious." Ben deadpanned.

"You're welcome." Decker ignored the barb, taking another drink of his coffee. "As for why I am here, I'm sure you noticed I'm not the only one."

"Yeah, I already ran into Maddie." Ben still didn't know what to think of his meeting with Maddie. Sure, he'd made a number of mistakes, but did he really deserve such venom?

"Yes, I saw." Decker nodded. "But there is one in particular you need to be on the lookout for."

"Who's that?"

Decker's head jerked, as if hearing something he only now noticed. "Looks like you're out of time, she's coming."

Something in Decker's voice put Ben on edge. "Who? Who's coming?"

"Can't you hear it?" Decker closed his eyes, swaying back and forth.

The song? What did that have to do with…

This whole time it was the same volume no matter where Ben went or how hard he tried to block it out. Now, it was growing steadily louder and louder. Ben hadn't caught on until Decker pointed it out. Now that he was paying attention to it, the melody was nearly deafening.

To Ben's horror, he recognized it now.

"Decker." Ben swallowed hard, insides twisting into knots as he raised his voice so that the other man could hear him over the song. "Who is coming?"

"She's coming, Ben. I suggest you start running."

"Who is coming, Decker?" Ben felt like the sound was boring a hole straight through his skull. Another lance of pain shot through his head, much like whenever he tried to remember how he got here. His forehead and temple took the brunt of it.

Decker's lips raised in a maniacal grin, the sight of which was every bit as unnatural as Maddie's laugh from earlier. Both left Ben feeling sick to his stomach.

"Death."

* * *

 **Let me know what you all think, comments/reviews help my work move along more than I can explain. Especially since my last two didn't go over so well.**


	3. The Nightmare Arrives

**Firstly, I would like to give a special thank you to a reader by the name of krachwarn. Were it not for them and their amazing comments, I probably would have given up on this work for lack of reader interest.**

 **Secondly, I made a few changes to chapters 1 and 2. Nothing major, just a few new lines here, deleted a tiny fragment there, tweaked some words and grammar. You don't need to go back and reread it if you don't want to.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

"Death?" Ben sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to shake off the newest wave of his mysterious headache. If people were going to keep randomly appearing out of thin air, could they at least make sense? Was that seriously too much to ask for?

"Well, you're death." Decker confirmed.

"You know what?" Ben had enough. "I don't care if I'm just imagining you, if you're not going to help I'm done talking to you."

"That's fine." Decker shrugged. "It's like you said, I'm dead."

Up until then, Decker's face was mostly neutral with a hint of amusement. As Ben watched, Decker's lips slowly lifted in a grin more deranged than the one Decker wore earlier.

A trickle of water began dripping from Decker's mouth, growing steadily stronger as Ben watched. At first, he thought Decker was drooling, but there was far too much to be that.

"Oh, Ben." Decker laughed, his voice coming out like he was talking through a mouthful of water, rising to his feet with his head tilted down out of Ben's line of sight. "You have no idea."

When Decker's face rose to face Ben again, Ben's eyes shot open wide in alarm.

Decker's body, completely dry a mere heartbeat ago, was now soaked through and dripping with fresh water. As if he'd just come out of the ocean. But what freaked Ben out the most was the copious amount of water pouring from his mouth like a faucet.

"Better run, Ben." Decker gurgled, the words almost impossible to understand. Raising a finger, he pointed behind Ben. "She's here."

Once again, Ben was completely floored when he followed Decker's direction. Maddie said she was here, but Ben hadn't dared to hope.

Ryn.

Ben was overjoyed to see another friendly face, especially the familiar mermaid. The only other one Ben would have been as happy to see was Maddie, but that that one hadn't gone so well.

Regardless, Ryn was approaching instead of walking away like Maddie had done. Ben took solace in that fact at the very least. It would be even better if she could give him a clear answer as to what was going on. Neither Maddie nor Decker had been all that forthcoming.

"Ryn…" Ben wanted to sprint over to the mermaid in his excitement but forced himself into a brisk walk to match her pace. While delighted to see her, there was a weird nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach. An unease Ben couldn't seem to shake.

The first hint something was off was when the song echoing across Bristol Cove stopped when Ryn closed her mouth. That should have tipped Ben off, but he overlooked it in his excitement. Only once Ryn was close enough to see clearly did Ben comprehend something was horribly amiss.

It was Ryn, there were no mistaking her distinctive features, but said features were… wrong. The first thing to catch Ben's eye was her face. Her facial structure, while unique as it was, didn't look right, her countenance twisted in an unnatural way. It wasn't just her expression either, her face looked more like it did in her mermaid form. And were those scales on her neck?

While accustomed to Ryn letting out the occasional hiss or something, the sound Ryn made chilled Ben to the core. Her mouth opened partially in the process, allowing Ben to see the razors that lined her mouth. Due to the distance, he hadn't seen them when she first arrived.

A quick glance down brought the revelation that Ryn's hands didn't even look vaguely human. Both were completely covered in scales, their bones twisted in a way that certainly wasn't human, the fingers themselves ending in wicked talons.

Ben didn't know why he did it, maybe his instincts realized the danger before he did, but he took a step back from Ryn. If he hadn't, a swipe of Ryn's claw would have gutted him on the spot. She missed flesh, grazing the fabric of his shirt instead.

Ben retreated, but Ryn followed. She snarled like a beast, coming at Ben with full intent to kill.

Ryn certainly would have, had a harpoon not caught the mermaid in the shoulder just then.

Ryn stumbled back in pain, clutching at her wounded shoulder. Ripping the spear out of her body, she moved to press the assault, but a second landed a direct hit in her stomach.

"BEN! MOVE!" Xander screamed from his car nearby, already reloading for a third shot.

Ben scrambled away while Ryn was briefly stunned from the surprise attack. She recovered a lot faster than Ben expected, though. He felt her make a grab for him but slipped from her grasp before she could get a proper grip.

Xander fired a third harpoon over Ben's shoulder but Ben didn't stop to see if it even hit.

"Get in!" Xander was in the driver seat, the car already running. Ben was rather amazed he hadn't heard the car's engine this entire time. In the silence of the empty Bristol Cove, it should have been hearable for miles.

Ben was almost to the car when he risked a look at Ryn. He watched her rip another harpoon out of her leg, but there was no blood. Ben watched the projectile be torn from her body, and yet there wasn't a single sign she'd ever been hit. Her shoulder and stomach were similarly unmarred. The third hit Ben hadn't seen, but he knew for a fact the first two found their mark.

So why wasn't she hurt?

In truth, Ben was grateful she was unharmed. For some reason, she wanted him dead. If she did, there must have been a very good reason. One that she would have told him then and there if it was within her power.

Even if it was life or death like that was, Ben wasn't sure he could have brought himself to hurt the mermaid. Ben liked to think he was one of the scant few humans Ryn could trust and rely on, and that was something Ben would rather not jeopardize.

Ben didn't waste time running around the car for the passenger seat. Instead, he tore open the back-seat door and dove in. It wasn't even closed before Xander gunned the engine. The vehicle speeding off with a squeal of rubber against pavement.

"What the hell happened to Ryn?" Ben demanded, climbing across the console into the front seat.

Perhaps Ryn was sick with some kind of mermaid specific illness? Something that regressed her mind and forced her more feral side out into the open? But this didn't explain her mermaid attributes on land.

Recalling his unpleasant reunion with Maddie, Ben remembered that she said Ryn was around. Judging by the way Ben's gir… ex-girlfriend, had worded it, she knew Ryn was like this. Not only did she know, but she hadn't seemed to care. Did Maddie truly hate him that much to not warn him about a potential killer lurking around?

"Did we lose her?" Xander ignored Ben's query, his focus on the road.

"Of course we did, we're…" Ben had to do a double take when he looked in the rearview mirror. Shooting up in his seat to look behind them with his own eyes, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

They certainly hadn't lost Ryn, she was giving chase on foot.

"She's still coming!" Ben watched, almost unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Ryn wasn't just running, the mermaid was catching up to their speeding car, and fast. Ben knew Ryn could be fast on her feet when needed, but outrunning a car? That should have been impossible.

Yet another item to add to the list titled 'impossible things that happened today'.

"Hang on." Xander warned before cutting a sharp turn. Ben, having forgotten his seatbelt in the chaos, was smacked against the passenger window. It hurt, but he imagined whatever fate Ryn had planned for him was going to be far worse.

Xander ducked and weaved through the parked cars of Bristol Cove with uncanny skill. Ben wouldn't have thought his old friend was that good of a driver. They were already leaving the city limits of Bristol Cove before Ben knew it.

Once the pair escaped the crazed mermaid, hopefully Xander could provide Ben with some reasonable answers. Thus far his potential sources were an angry ex, a dead man that made little sense, and a bloodthirsty mermaid that didn't want to talk. Not very good options.

Ben, once he recovered from his introduction to the window, attempted to get another look behind them for Ryn, but was stopped short with another terrible lance of pain through his temple. It was too similar to what he felt earlier to not be related.

"Ben?" Xander must have caught sight of Ben doubling over in his seat, clutching his head. "Just hold on, okay?"

Ben tried to hold it in, but he couldn't contain the scream when he was hit with another fresh burst of agony. This time it was like his forehead was struck with a sledgehammer. This wasn't like the standard throbbing of a headache. It actually felt like something invisible was striking his head again and again.

Ben's entire world was spinning uncontrollably when Ben heard the heavy thud above his head.

"Look out!" Xander grabbed the dazed Ben by the shoulder and shoved him forward in the seat just as the clawed hand drove through the car's roof. Had Xander not done so, the points would have stabbed into Ben's back.

Xander swerved repeatedly in an attempt to throw the mermaid off, but she held fast. Several more arm sized holes were punched before Ryn started tearing the roof away in chunks. The entire time she hissed and growled like a wild animal, nothing like the Ryn that Ben remembered.

"Ben, seatbelt!" Xander slammed his foot on the gas. The sudden jerk cost Ryn her footing, knocking her feet out from under her, but she managed to remain on top using the handholds she'd made in the roof.

When Ben saw the roadside guardrail approaching rapidly, he knew Xander's intentions.

Ben had just managed to click his seatbelt into place when the car slammed through and went careening off the road.

Xander's car wasn't exactly designed for off-road travel, but he managed to swerve to avoid the huge tree right in their path. They'd have all three been taken out if they'd struck it head on. The rearview mirror hadn't been so lucky.

Fortunately, the woods in this portion wasn't as dense as the rest. The accelerating car simply ploughed through the underbrush and smaller trees with little to no trouble. They didn't have long until they reached the thicker parts. If they didn't lose Ryn by then, Ben and Xander would be screwed.

"Come on!" Xander risked a look up where he and Ben found Ryn was still clinging to the roof of the car. Her clawed hand with an iron grip in one of the holes she made. As long as she held, the mermaid wasn't going anywhere. "Ben, take the wheel."

"What?" Ben wasn't given a choice in the matter when Xander released the steering wheel. Ben immediately snatched hold in an attempt to steer their way through the snapping wood and vines. Not that it would matter, he had no clue where they even were at this point. The best he could hope was to avoid anything that looked too big to run over.

Catching a glint of light on the metal of Xander's knife from the corner of his eye, Ben didn't need to wonder what Xander's intentions were.

"Stop!" Ben snatched hold of Xander's wrist before he could use the knife.

"She's trying to kill you!" Xander switched the blade to his spare hand, no doubt expecting Ben to keep one hand on the wheel.

Which Ben didn't.

"It's her or you." Xander implored, trying to wrestle his hands free from Ben.

"She's just sick." Ben shot back. "I can't let you hurt her."

"She's not sick, you idiot." Xander sounded more annoyed than angry. "You are!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means…" Xander interrupted himself when he glanced back to the windshield, which both men had been neglecting. "Oh, crap."

Following the fisherman's gaze, Ben found that their car had broken clear of the forest. Except, now it was hurling at near top speed for what looked like a steep cliff.

It was too late to turn, they were going too fast. Xander tried to slam on the break, but again their speed was too high.

Hearing another hiss from above, Ben looked up in time to see Ryn sail over the roof of the car. She was able to stay on, but now found herself on the hood. The only thing separating herself from Ben and Xander was a measly pane of glass.

In the exact same moment that Ryn pulled her fist back to punch through the glass, Xander rammed the gas pedal.

Ryn's position was again destabilized and she did a faceplant into the windshield. Ben winced, though he knew Ryn could shrug off a blow so minor. It didn't make it any easier to watch.

Neither was it easy to watch those eyes of hers up close, once so full of wonder and curiosity, now flooded with raw hate and bloodlust. The look on her was so alien, Ben briefly wondered if this even was Ryn.

"Here we go!" Xander called out, their car flying over the edge of the cliff.

* * *

 **Still working on where I want to go with this. I have the end figured out and a couple major points, but I'm still working on how we get there. Please drop a comment/review so I know what you all think.**


	4. Broken Reunion

**Good news and bad news, everyone.**

 **First, the good. I managed to finish another chapter of Jaws of Madness, despite life's attempts to stop me.**

 **Now for the bad... my precious laptop exploded. Fortunately, it's repairable, but it's probably going to take months before I can get it functional again. In the meantime, a good 90% of my personal life is now crippled and I had to look for alternate methods to type this out while using an old derelict computer (which keeps breaking down too) I had to upload and it's been a total nightmare. Not to mention, I can't get a functional spellcheck system working either so I apologize for any errors my brain misses. And this is without getting into non-computer related bad stuff that keeps happening. Almost enough to make one feel like the universe is out to get them.**

 **I would be taking a break from writing period if it wasn't for the fact that I'll probably lose what few readers I seem to have left. It's a little hard to write a multi-chapter when nobody leaves reviews/comments. Which is why everyone reading this should be thanking krachwarn and alice.**

 **So in summary, my next weekly uploads might be a bit behind shedule for some time. And hopefully my quality is stiff up to proper standards.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Maddie was reasonably sure she'd broken a number of traffic and driving laws in her haste, but nothing short of an actual cop forcing her off the road was going to stop her. She had somewhere to be, and Maddie was going to get there as quick as possible, laws be damned.

The vehicle came to a halt with a screech of tires against the pavement. Maddie dove out, not bothering to check and see if she actually landed inside the lines of the parking space. She wasn't in the middle of the road, and that was good enough.

Maddie dashed into the building and, after a quick question to the receptionist, continued on to the elevators. She clicked the button but nothing happened. She knew it took time but it was moving far too slowly for her tastes. Mashing the button several more times did nothing to improve her patience either.

"Screw it." Maddie kicked the wall in frustration before moving away. It was taking too long to arrive, time for an alternative.

Spotting the nearby sign, Maddie followed it to another door which she threw open to find the stairwell. The woman ascended the stairs two at a time in full sprint until she reached her goal of the third floor.

Winded, but not tired, Maddie continued on her quest to find the room that held her target. She was about to give up and ask one of the staff until she saw the number the receptionist had told her.

Maddie didn't hesitate to shove the door open. It didn't occur to her until now that Ben may not have been alone, but it didn't matter. The room was empty, save for the unconscious figure of Ben laying in the bed.

Helen hadn't exactly been very descriptive when she called Maddie earlier. All Maddie had gotten from the call was that Ben was being taken to the hospital, but Helen had avoided giving any details other than the fact he was alive but hurt badly.

"Ben?" Maddie crossed the room in the blink of an eye to reach her boy... ex-boyfriend's bedside. He was breathing, there was that at least, but he was unresponsive. Whatever happened, the man was still out cold.

Maddie allowed a little of her worry to fade as she took in the fact that he was alive, hurt, but alive. Now able to calm down some, she examined Ben's injuries. The most glaring were the bandages wrapped around his head. Having not seen beneath them, it was impossible to tell the extent of the injury. He wasn't in the ICU, so that particular one couldn't have been that bad. Next up were Ben's hands, both wrapped so completely in bandages that Maddie was unable to see even an inch of skin. Other than these two, he was physically unharmed, on the outside at least.

Now that Maddie knew he was somewhat safe, she needed to go find one of the doctors and ask about...

Maddie nearly jumped from her skin when the door was thrown open, slamming against the wall with a resounding bang. She was still trying to figure out where the newcomer went when she heard the familiar voice from Ben's other side.

"Ben!" Ryn hissed in obvious worry as she too took in Ben's state. The mermaid's eyes immedetely went to the machines connected to Ben. She growled and made a move toward them, perhaps in an attempt to tear them away from Ben, but she stopped herself after a single step. Likely remembering they were there to help and wern't a threat.

Ryn's hands went to the bandages but she limited herself to brushing the pads of her fingertips over them. The mermaid hadn't been in Britol Cove long enough to be familiar with their purpose, but she was hesitant to cause furthur harm to Ben in her ignorance.

Seeing Ryn getting handsy with Ben reminded Maddie of everything that happened. She was about to tell her to stop touching him, but Ryn didn't give her the chance.

"Who do this?" Ryn looked up from Ben after speaking. Maddie had thought it was worry or fear in the mermaid's eyes, but that wasn't even close.

It was pure rage.

"I don't..."

"Who hurt Ben?" Ryn demanded, voice degenerating into an almost feral snarl.

Unlike Ben, Maddie had never seen Ryn's more predatory nature, not in person at least. She'd always been graced with the more human half of the mermaid. There was little human-like in Ryn's posture, she looked almost ready to pounce upon Maddie if given the slightest reason to.

Ryn was more than ready to tear somebody limb from limb with her bare hands, the only thing stopping her was the mermaid not knowing whose limbs to rip off.

Maddie was unable to speak while under the full scrutiny of that stare. She liked to think she was no coward, but something about the mermaid's eyes, once so full of wonder and awe, being replaced with anger and malice had Maddie's knees going weak. She couldn't speak, her lips fumbling for words that wouldn't come.

Right now, Maddie imagined this was how the rabbit felt when cornered by the wolf.

"Ryn, we don't know what happened." Helen arrived shortly after the mermaid. "He's hurt, that's all we know."

"Ben... going to be okay?" Ryn's voice shook, not unlike when Donna lay on her deathbed. She turned to face Helen but, much to Maddie's annoyance, her hand remained atop Ben's.

"His hands are beaten up pretty badly." Helen moved to stand at the foot of Ben's hospital bed. "Some nasty cuts, bruising, a couple hairline fractures and minor blood loss, but all of that's nothing. The real issue is his head."

"Head?" Ryn had removed her own hands from Ben's the moment Helen mentioned Ben's injuries there. She shifted her touch to his arm instead. Maddie had to resist the urge to tell her to stop touching him so much.

"It's a severe head injury. Nothing broken, but..." Helen hesitated. "According to the doctor's... he's in a coma."

Maddie had been silent thus far, but her heart sank with each word that was spoken. She knew Ben had been found by Helen on the floor of his place, but how could this have possibly happened? Maybe Ryn had something with her theory of Ben having been attacked.

Could the merpeople have returned? Maddie rather doubted that one. If they had come back, for whatever reason, Ben would have been more severely wounded or outright killed. Ben's wounds were too minor to be from such an altercation.

Xander? No, for all his temper and recent volatility, he never once brought harm to Ben, or any human for that matter. You couldn't say the same for how he felt about the merpeople. To the best of Maddie's knowledge, he'd gotten over some of that, but one never knew for sure.

"What is... coma?" Of course Ryn wouldn't know what a coma was.

"It's like being asleep." Maddie was the one to answer, though she made a concious effort not to look at Ryn directly. "But... worse."

"We wake him." Ryn didn't give Maddie a chance to continue before she was gently shaking Ben by the shoulders like the man was taking a nap. "Ben? Wake up."

"It doesn't work that way, Ryn." Helen circled around to Ryn's side of the bed to stop her. "You can't wake him up like that."

Ryn hissed quietly to herself but otherwise didn't struggle. Maddie did notice her hand return to Ben's arm.

"He will have to wake on his own." Maddie leaned heavily against the bed, mind still trying to process that this was indeed happening, and there wasn't a single damn thing she could do.

"Ben will wake, yes?" Ryn sounded so hopeful, as much as Maddie didn't want to see the mermaid right now, she didn't know if she had it in her to crush the girl with the truth. "Soon?"

"It may not be soon." Helen admitted, apparently deciding for a much softer approach. Probably for the best, Maddie's personal feelings would have colored her own explanation. "But don't worry, Ben's a fighter. I'm sure he will be up in no time. All we can do is wait and be here for him."

"Ryn wait." Ryn grabbed a nearby stool and dragged it over to Ben's bedside. She threw herself down with a sense of finality that dared the world to try and dislodge her.

"You know..." Helen leaned down closer to Ryn to whisper. "I'm no doctor, but I've heard that coma patients can hear you, even if don't show it."

"Ryn is here." Ryn instantly forgot all the world to lean over Ben and speak to him. That hand of hers finding it's way to his shoulder now. Ryn had a poor sense of personal space, Maddie knew that, but she would have thought she would have figured it out by now. "Maddie and Helen, too. You wake now."

No response, not that Maddie was surprised, but Ryn seemed genuinely disappointed her attempt to awaken the man failed.

"Ryn is sorry." Ryn's entire posture slumped, voice going so low that Maddie's ears strained to hear it. Almost like she was just now discovering she was powerless to help. Suddenly, her head shot up to look at Helen. "Ben hear me?"

"I wish I could say for certain." Helen's interest was piqued now. "But yeah, that's what they say."

"Could I..." Ryn stopped, face changing from hopeful to being unsure. "Sing him awake?"

"Absolutely not!" Maddie didn't yell, but she was close. The words coming out much louder than she intended in the mostly noiseless room. Maddie had been quiet up until now, listening and letting things sink in, but hearing Ryn suggest such a thing forced Maddie's outrage to boil over. "That song of yours is what got him into this mess in the first place!"

"Maddie..." Helen warned but Maddie wasn't listening.

"You'll just make things worse." Ryn looked every bit like a kicked puppy as Maddie's words tore into her like a thousand blades. The mermaid's gaze fell to the floor, her body visibly shrinking beneath the verbal assault. "He might never wake up, and it's your singing that did it."

Ryn wasn't trying to be malicious, she was just wanted to help, but Maddie couldn't make herself see that clearly. Her anger at Ryn was overriding her sense of rationality.

"It might be best if you just..."

"That's enough." Helen, for quite possibly the first time since Maddie met the woman, raised her voice. It was enough to snap Maddie out of her tirade.

Ryn still sat on that stool, but she held her head in one of her hands to cover her face, the other still on Ben. Only now, said hand was gripping the bed-sheet so tightly her knuckles were turning white. The mermaid's body trembled in what Maddie assumed must be another bout of instinctual rage she'd accidentally coaxed out.

Maddie was so sure of that, right up until she heard the faint sniffling coming from Ryn's direction.

"It's alright, Ryn." Helen put an arm around the mermaid to comfort her. An act Maddie had done once upon a time after Donna's death. "She doesn't mean it."

Whether Maddie meant the words or not didn't matter, it was all still true. Ryn's song had broken Ben's mind into god knows how many pieces, and now his body was broken to match.

Destruction followed in Ryn's wake like a terrible wave ever since the moment Ryn arrived in Bristol Cove. Ben's body was but the latest addition to the pile. The deaths of Sean, Donna, and Decker, Maddie's father being wounded and fired from his job as sheriff. All could be traced back to Ryn. She brought nothing but pain and suffering to the people of Bristol Cove.

"I need some air." Maddie couldn't take it anymore. Loathe as she was to leave an unconscious Ben with Ryn, Maddie needed to step outside for a minute lest her temper get the better of her again.

Maddie spared only a single glance over her shoulder as she left the room, and Ryn and Ben, behind.

* * *

 **I did say in a previous chapter this story was going to be darker than my other Siren works, so don't expect too much in the way of sunshine and rainbows here, folks. Characters are going to suffer before I'm done with them. Some more than others.**

 **And no, this isn't the last we will see of Maddie, Ryn, and Helen here.**

 **There is an overall theme/idea I'm trying to get at here, but it may not be obvious until we reach closer to the end of the story. See if you all can figure it out.**

 **See you all next week, hopefully.**


	5. The Fallen

**After a lot of thinking about it, I think I've decided it's time for me to join Siren in hibernation. I'll finish Jaws of Madness, but after that I won't be posting anymore work for Siren. At least not until season 2 comes out. Since most of the readers have left the boat, I'll save the rest of my ideas for the next season's run.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

"Xander... you okay?" Ben blinked away his blurry vision as best he could. After a few moments, he was able to at least make out where he was. Ben half expected to wake up in some other weird locale, it had certainly been that kind of day. But no, he was still in the passenger seat of the car.

When Ben's question didn't get an answer, he turned to get a look at the driver seat. Xander could have easily been knocked out just like him.

"Damn, that was close." Ben nearly lept from his skin when he saw Xander's knife sticking out of the seat a few inches from his head.

Now that the mental cobwebs were starting to properly clear out, the sight of the knife jogged Ben's memory about what happened.

Lurching up in his seat, Ben was forced back down. He'd forgotten the seat-belt was still attached. Fumbling with the latch, he found the thing broken. No matter how he pushed or pulled, he couldn't get it loose.

"Wait..." Ben went still, he could hear something but he had to strain his ears to do so.

The song, he could hear Ryn singing again. The sound was so far away that Ben had to try hard to even hear it. Hopefully, if it was anything like before, that meant Ryn was nowhere close.

Though Ben found it odd that Ryn would have broken off her attack after Ben and Xander wrecked the car, he wasn't about to question his fortune.

Taking a deep breath, Ben forced himself to calm down. With newly steadied hands, Ben tried the seat-belt again. Try as he might, it was still stuck. With no other option, Ben grabbed hold of Xander's knife, yanked it out of the seat, and severed the strap instead.

Now free, Ben sat up in his seat only for the car to suddenly lurch forward a few inches.

Ben sighed in frustration. Just when he thought his luck couldn't get any...

Ben's train of thought stalled in it's tracks when he leaned over to get a proper look out the window. The last thing Ben remembered had been Xander driving them off the cliff, a drop Ben had assumed couldn't be that far.

They'd gone over the cliff alright, and landed right in a tree a good several stories tall. Ben wasn't even aware there were trees this tall around Bristol Cove.

The whole scene reminded Ben a little too much of a movie he'd seen some years back. He couldn't quite recall the name, though. If he had any luck at all, Ben could get down the tree before the car fell like it did in the film.

There was no point in searching for Xander. The driver seat was empty, his seat-belt open, but the window and door on his side were both intact and shut. It made zero sense for Xander to just vanish into thin air like this, but Ben was beginning to figure out nothing was going to make sense right now. The best that could be done was hope Xander was alright. Yelling for him woulnd't help either, that might just draw Ryn back to him again.

The door on Ben's side opened perfectly fine, the car didn't even shift when he did so. With all the grace and caution Ben could muster, he slipped out of the car and into the boughs of the tree. The branches had to be strong to keep holding the car up, but that didn't exactly reassure Ben much.

Slow and easy, Ben made his way down. He was a far better swimmer than climber, but he made do.

Just like in that stupid movie, Ben was partway down when he heard the groan of the car move above his head. Stepping up his efforts, Ben quickened his pace.

Ben was still a ways up when he heard the unpleasant crack of wood breaking. The branch supporting him gave way and cost him his footing. Ben tried to grab hold of another to stop himself but it was too late. He was sent tumbling down, the branches slowed his descent but he crashed into each painfully before coming loose from the tree and falling the rest of the way into solid earth.

The fall was too short to cause any lasting harm, but still hurt like hell.

"Glad that's over." Ben rolled onto his back with a groan. At least he got out of the tree without the...

Upon hearing the car moving again, Ben scrambled to his feet to dive out of the way. Not even caring when he took a mouthful of dirt for his trouble. It was all for naught, though. When Ben peered back, he saw the car hadn't even moved from it's perch in the tree.

Grumbling under his breath, Ben rose and dusted himself off of leaves and dust.

At least Ben was out of the tree, now he just had to figure out where on earth he was. He knew the waters around Bristol Cove like the back of his hand, but was less experienced with the town's forests. If he could at least reach familiar ground, he could work his way from there.

At least Ryn's song was still distant. Lord help him if the car had fallen from the tree. With Ben's current luck, Ryn would have heard that from dozens of miles away. He had no doubt that if he encountered her here in the open, he'd be doomed. Unless Xander or another convenient miracle came to the rescue.

With no other recourse, Ben picked a direction and started walking.

Ben couldn't even use the sun to determine which direction he was going. The trees were not thick enough to block it out, but the clouds did a well enough job on their own.

It was hard to tell which was more disturbing, the silent streets of an abandoned Bristol Cove, or the equally silent stretch of forest Ben found himself hiking through. No sounds of woodland animals, no birdsong, not even wind rustling the leaves.

The only sound keeping Ben company was Ryn's foreboding song.

Ben's trek was beginning to turn into a repeat of Bristol Cove. He made absolutely sure to walk in the same direction, but all the trees were starting to look the same. There was no way he was walking in circles. What really bothered him was the inability to tell time. How long was he walking for? Minutes? Hours?

It was subtle for some time, Ben was so distracted by trying to block out Ryn's song, that he didn't notice the fog creeping in until it was everywhere. Unlike within Bristol Cove itself, it didn't obscure his vision, but it did add an air of creepiness to an already spooky atmosphere.

"Mu..." Ben caught a glimpse of what might have been a person's silhouette behind a tree, but the shape and voice vanished before Ben could catch them.

"Hello?" Ben was careful not to yell, that might draw Ryn in if he was too loud. "Somebody there? I'm... kinda lost."

"Killer..." A second mystery voice added to the first.

Alright then, so creepy ghostly voices saying things like that could be added to the pile. That was a lovely addition to the haunted forest vibe the place was already giving off.

"Murd...erer..." The voices were familiar, but Ben couldn't place them. It was definitely not Ryn, even distorted like these, he'd have been able to recognize it.

Like everything else, Ben tried to ignore the elusive speakers. They were not attacking him, rather trying their best to keep out of sight. Their choice of words was a bit sinister, but words seemed to be all they had.

Ben did his best to disregard his newfound companions, but their comments didn't stop. It was always the same words, sometimes with a pause between syllables. Only one of the mystery voices did that. It almost sounded like...

"Killer..."

Ben's heart nearly blew from his chest. That one was spoken right into Ben's ear from behind. Whirling around, he found nobody. Just the same empty expanse of foggy woods.

That was when Ben heard it. The soft pattering of something dripping onto the ground. It would have been nigh impossible to hear any other time, but the silence of the forest made the sound scarily loud.

A large part of Ben didn't want to turn around to face the sound. There was no telling what was waiting for him out of sight. The anticipation settled like a stone in Ben's gut, but he slowly turned anyway.

"Sean?" Ben would know the man anywhere, even if he hadn't been dressed in his work-wear. The same outfit Ben had last seem in wearing in life. The same one he and Xander buried him at sea in.

Including the gaping wound in Sean's abdomen. Blood ran down his body, dripping to the dirt to create the sound Ben heard.

Sean was quiet at first. He said nothing, but his mighty glare was fixed on Ben. Ben had seen that look many times growing up, but never quite this intense.

"Killer..." Sean's finger came up to point at Ben.

"W... what?" Ben took several steps back but bumped into another shorter body behind him.

A glance over his shoulder revealed Ryn's sister, Donna. She bore a matching glare to Sean's, and just like the other human's, it was focused on Ben. Unlike her sister, however, Donna's features were completely human. Exactly how Ben saw her last, all the way down to the bleeding gunshot wound in her belly.

"Murd...erer..." Ben fell back away from Donna as her finger rose to mirror Sean's.

At first, Ben thought they were pointing at each other, but that was not the case. As Ben moved out from between man and mermaid, their finger's and glare's followed him.

"What are you talking about?" Ben should have been more worried about conversing with a pair of dead people, but his mind was much more open to the concept after his encounter with Decker a short time ago.

"Killer...". Sean advanced a step.

"Murd...erer". Donna copied Sean, taking a single step toward Ben.

"Stay... stay back." Ben almost tripped over a root while backing up, but kept his footing. Donna and Sean continued approaching.

"Murd...erer!" Donna's voice grew steadily louder as the words passed from her lips.

"Killer!" Sean followed the mermaid's example.

"Shh!" Ben hushed the pair but they weren't listening. They didn't hear, or just didn't care.

"MURD...ERER!"

"KILLER!"

Ben had to cover his ears from the force of Donna and Sean's screams. Ben was about to tell them to shut up again, but he heard something else that made his blood run cold.

Ryn's song was getting louder again, fast.

Ben didn't hesitate, didn't even give it a second thought. He simply picked a direction at random and broke into a sprint.

As far as Ben could tell, Donna and Sean didn't pursue him, but that was the last of Ben's concerns. Leaping over fallen logs and crashing through shrubbery, Ben pushed himself as hard as he could.

It didn't help. As fast as Ben ran, the song still approached. Ryn must know exactly where he was now. Ben needed to find some cover or somewhere he could hide away from Ryn's mermaid senses.

Ben's foot was caught on a root again, but instead of falling, he stumbled and fell through a bush. Upon looking up, he discovered he found the way out of the woods, and had somehow managed to find his way to the rescue center. It was familiar terrain at least, maybe he could find something useful inside to throw Ryn off his trail.

Ben was heading for the main building but was ambushed before he got there. As unseen person grabbed him and shoved him off the dock and into the frigid water, diving in after him.

Ben resurfaced easily enough, but his assailant seized him from behind again before Ben could get anywhere. He struggled to get away, but ceased when he heard them talk.

"Ben." Xander snapped. "Quit it. Get over here, now."

It was indeed Xander, and he was trying to drag Ben toward the underside of the dock. It wasn't like Ben had better options, Ryn song was almost deafening now. If she wasn't right on top of him, she would be within a minute.

Swimming fully under the dock, Ben and Xander took hold of one of the posts to steady themselves. Xander brought a finger to his lips in the universal sign to be quiet.

Ben's breath caught when he heard the first thud above his head. Thump, thump, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed. The only other noise an occasional snarl and sound of Ryn sniffing the air.

It occurred to Ben it might have been rash of Xander to hide them both in ocean water, but it was a blessing in disguise. Yes, the ocean allowed Ryn home-field advantage, but her transformation took time. Time that would allow the men to escape.

This was assuming Ryn even found them. So far, the mermaid was completely unaware of the humans hiding literaly beneath her feet. She was already walking away to search elsewhere for her prey.

Even after the footsteps and song faded into the distance, Ben and Xander remained under the dock. They had to be completely sure she was gone, a sentiment neither man had to voice.

"I think she'd gone." Ben said after some time.

"Sure about that? You're the one she's trying to gut like a trout." Xander swam out from under the dock and toward the ladder. Once he was up, he offered a hand to help Ben up.

"Xander, where did you go?" Ben put his hands on his knees in an attempt to steady his nearly fried nerves. "I woke up in the car and you were gone."

"Yeah, so?"

"Uh... are you going to tell me what happened?"

Xander paused for a moment to give Ben a strange look before speaking. "You haven't figured it out yet, have you?"

"Figured what out?" Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. At least he hadn't had another headache since shortly before they crashed the car.

Ben was in no danger of freezing to death, there was that. The water had been cold, icy even, but Ben's body remained warm even while partially submerged. Another item to the list of weird stuff for the day.

"Okay." Xander laughed, actually laughed. "Okay, you need to be told some things straight up. I get it."

"Finally!"

"Come on." Xander motioned for Ben to follow. He led Ben over to the door to one of the rescue center's supply sheds. "In here."

Ben had his doubts the answer to his problems was going to be found in a shed, but was willing to give Xander the benefit of the doubt. He'd earned that twice over now.

Xander opened the door, and indicated for Ben to enter with a sweep of his arm.

When Ben did, he received yet another shock. "What the... how did we get back to my place?"

* * *

 **Not quite the way I envisioned it, but I think it turned out a little better than I orginally planned. We do still have a few more chapters left, and I finally got a decent laptop working to do my work on. Therefore, I shall see you all next week.**


	6. Revelations

**All goes according to plan, my computer will come home by this coming Friday. So hopefully this is the last chapter I will have to post from this thing. We still have a couple more to go after this one, though.**

 **This was going to be two separate chapters, one for Maddie and the other for Ben, but in the end I decided to combine them into one.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

"What do you think you're doing?" Maddie had just entered Ben's room, only to be floored by what she found.

"Helen say Ben may hear us." Ryn didn't even look up from where she was snuggled into Ben's side on the hospital bed. "Maybe Ben feel. He will know Ryn is here."

"Ah." The sight was already sending Maddie's blood boiling, but she forced herself to rein it in. This was a hospital, not somewhere to start an argument, as one-sided as it might be.

"I not stay." Ryn lifted her head only slightly to indicate the stool she'd singled out as her seat of choice when she first came to see Ben. "Maddie lay here later, Ben will know you are here, too."

Maddie answered only with a nod that she didn't know if Ryn even saw. She didn't trust her voice all that much around the mermaid at the moment. It would have been all too easy for another cruel remark about her behavior to come out. It would help no one to pick a fight now.

That didn't stop Maddie's urge to jerk Ryn out of that bed and away from Ben.

A tiny part of Maddie wanted to boot Ryn entirely from the room. Maddie had neither the power to do so, nor was she that stupid. Ryn would allow nobody, save perhaps one of the hospital doctors and even that was iffy, to kick her out. She'd be breaking doors down and physically moving people out of the way, probably violently, to get back in.

It had been made clear early on that Maddie herself was being allowed to visit. Helen had taken complete control of the situation, forcing Maddie to tolerate Ryn if she wanted to even see Ben.

In the days following Ben admittance to the hospital, he'd had a number of visitors. His parents had been among the first, along with his brother. Ted had immediately declared he'd pay any bill needed but didn't feel the need to be an overbearing. As soon as he knew Maddie was looking after his son, he'd said Ben was "in good hands" and left it at that.

The rest of Ben's family followed his example, though Elaine took a little convincing. She didn't take it well to hear her oldest son was in a coma. Elaine held her composure well, but Maddie knew just how shaky it was. No doubt bad memories of her accident were being forced to the surface every time she thought about Ben. There would be no peace for her until Ben rejoined the waking world.

Xander had been a bit of a surprise when he showed up. Not that he came to visit, that was a given, but Ryn not going berserk upon seeing her sister's killer. It had to be because Xander was such a close friend of Ben, Maddie could think of no other reason.

It was obvious Ryn didn't want to let Xander even enter. She'd stood guard over Ben, watching Xander with the iciest glare Maddie had ever seen. If Xander would have made a single wrong or threatening move, Ryn would have eviscerated the man on the spot without mercy, and there wouldn't have been a force on this earth that could have stopped her.

While Xander was indeed allowed into the room, Ryn didn't permit him to get within arm reach of the bedridden Ben. Ryn's reaction when he tried had been a threatening hiss, one that Xander knew better than to argue against.

Luckily, Xander came and went without incident, but Ryn eyes were going to be haunting the man's nightmares for a while, that's for sure.

There had been others, some local family friends, coworkers from the rescue center, but Maddie and Ryn were the only ones who came every day. Much to Maddie's annoyance, Ryn was always here before her. It had been weeks, and yet Ryn always beat her every single day. Sometimes Helen would be here too, but most days it would be just Ryn by herself. The older woman had to be dropping her off the moment visiting hours started. Maddie was unable to do the same, but came running the moment she could.

Maddie was mildly surprised Helen was allowing Ryn to roam around without supervision, but the mermaid really wasn't going far. She was glued to Ben's bedside come hell or high water.

Despite sharing the quiet hospital room alone with a comatose Ben, Maddie and Ryn rarely spoke to each other. Ryn would remain on her chair beside Ben while Maddie had her own chair on the opposite side. Thus far, Maddie and Ben's parents had been the only ones Ryn permitted to get this close to Ben without issuing some kind of threat. The doctors who routinely checked on Ben were allowed the same privilege, but Maddie could see how how Ryn's self-control was being pushed to do so.

Situated in her customary chair, Maddie pulled a book out from her bag. Maddie didn't want to talk to Ryn, but the silence in the room started to become maddening, fast. As a result, Maddie had taken to reading to the unconscious Ben. It was one of those cheesy romance novels you would find in a general store, the kind that she and Ben had poked fun at numerous times in the past.

If Ben really hated them, and Maddie knew he did every bit as much as she did, he was just going to have to wake up and tell her to stop reading, now wouldn't he?

Reading out loud helped filled the vocal void in the room and kept Maddie distracted from Ryn. Occasionally, Maddie would catch the mermaid listening to her with rapt attention, even though there had to be a number of words she didn't understand. Ryn never did ask for Maddie about anything she read, something she would have done before all this.

Before Ryn nearly got Ben killed, before she wrecked Ben and Maddie's relationship, before everything.

Maddie had finished the last chapter of the book she started days ago and was in the middle of pulling another out when she saw Ryn watching her again. The mermaid had vacated the bed at some point and retaken her seat but was currently resting her head on Ben's arm, her eyes on Maddie.

Ryn expression was blank, mostly devoid of emotion as it often was, but there was something there. Something in Ryn's countenance that Maddie couldn't possibly identify. It wasn't the first time Maddie saw it, but she forcibly ignored it as she had been doing thus far.

Ryn face was one thing, the touching thing was still grating on Maddie's nerves. Ben wasn't her boyfriend, and she should have learned enough about personal space by now to know she needed to keep her hands off of him. Something Ryn adamantly refused to comprehend.

Every second of every day she had some part of her body connected to his. Whether it was holding his hand, her hand on his arm, their arms brushing. Ryn always made sure some part of her was touching him.

Maddie wanted to tell the mermaid off and make her stop, but she lacked the high ground here. Ben wasn't her boyfriend either.

"How's he doing?" Helen must have only just now returned to the hospital, Maddie had been here for hours and this was the first she was seeing of the older woman. "Any change?"

"No." Ryn answered before Maddie could even get her mouth open. "Ben still sleeping."

"Well, don't worry." Helen sent Ryn a reassuring smile, one that the mermaid didn't even look at, and rested a hand on her back. "I'm sure he'll come to any day now. We just need to be patient."

"Patient, yes, I know this." Ryn nodded, taking Ben's hand in both of hers. The sight of which made Maddie's eyebrow twitch, but she said nothing.

"Seeing as how you two have things in hand here, I'm going to pop out and see if there's anything in the snack machines." Helen moved to leave in the room before pausing. "You two want anything?"

"No." Ryn refused.

"I think I'll tag along." Maddie bookmarked her page and rose from her chair.

Helen shot her a suspicious look before walking out the door, Maddie hot on her heels.

"Okay, that's it." Maddie waited until they were in the hallway, and a fair distance from Ben's room, to confront Helen. "You've been sidestepping for days now, talk."

"About what?" Helen deflected, just like she did before Ben and Maddie became aware of her partial mermaid heritage.

"You found him." Maddie stepped directly in front of Helen to head her off. "But you wont tell me what happened, and nobody else will either. I'm guessing that's your doing, too."

"Might be." Helen shrugged and attempted to walk around Maddie but she merely stepped to block her way. Maddie had enough of the evasive crap, and wasn't going to walk away without a straight answer.

"What happened?" Maddie was demanding now, temper flaring.

"You really want to know?" Helen sighed. "Some things you can't unknow."

"I'll be the judge of that, now start talking."

Helen waited, obviously for Maddie to back off, but that wasn't going to be happening. "His place was wrecked, but the door was locked from the inside. You do the math."

"What, you're saying he did this to himself?" Maddie was skeptical. Ben wasn't really the self-harming type as far as Maddie knew. "That's crazy!"

"Is it?" Helen's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You want to know what's really crazy?"

"Wh..."

"You see that back there?" Helen pointed over her shoulder at the way they came. "That's your fault, and you can't even see it."

"How is that my..."

"Ryn at least has an excuse." Helen took a menacing step forward. Her glare wasn't quite up to the same level as Ryn's but Helen's one eighth mermaid genetics were showing through. "She doesn't know or even understand what her song can do. What's yours?"

"Excu..." Maddie was trying, but Helen wasn't allowing her more than a few words in.

"You." Helen jabbed a finger in Maddie's chest. "Abandoned him. The song made him suffer, tearing his mind apart while he struggled to resist. When Ben needed you most, you turned your back on him. Out of what? Anger? Petty jealousy?"

"I... I..." Maddie stuttered, unable to speak.

"Ryn unknowingly led him to the cliff, but when he fell and reached out for you, you let him fall." Helen had no trouble walking past Maddie this time. She was too stunned to even consider stopping her.

* * *

"What the... how did we get back to my place?" Ben scaned the room with his eyes and, yes it was indeed his home.

"Ah." Xander let out a happy sigh, taking a seat at Ben's kitchen table. "Home sweet home, eh?"

"Not really." Ben deadpanned. "You promised me answers."

"Finally found your way here." Ben whirled around at the voice to find Decker sitting on his couch. "Was starting to wonder if you'd ever show up."

Ben took an involuntary step back, remembering clearly what happened the last time he'd seen his fellow biologist.

"No need to freak out." Xander reassured from behind Ben. "You're safe here, or at least safer than out there. Notice anything... different?"

Other than Decker looking human, no there wasn't anything all that...

"Ryn stopped singing." Ben eyes went wide in alarm. The last two times that happened, Ryn was right on top of him preparing to corner her prey.

"You can't hear her while in here." Decker explained, rising from the couch to join Xander at the kitchen table. "It's not going to last long, though. Your mind is wearing down, this won't remain a haven for long."

At Ben's confused look, Xander and Decker shared a look.

"He hasn't figured it out yet, has he?" Decker pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Nope." Xander shook his head.

"You got this, Xander?"

"Sure." Xander propped his elbows up on the table, giving Ben his full attention. "Alright, Ben. Think for a moment, everything here is off, some things are physically impossible. Right?"

"You can say that again." Ben agreed, leaning against the table.

"That's because it isn't real."

"That's..."

"Ah ah." Xander silenced Ben with a raised finger. "Stop, shut up, and think. What's the last thing you remember before waking up in wacko land?"

"It's..." Ben had been trying to do just that for heavens know how long, and only ever got a headache for his troubles. There was something about this place, something Ben couldn't put his finger on, that stilled the pain in his skull. "I... I was here."

"Yes." Xander sounded hopeful. "Good, think harder. What happened here?"

"I was... whoa!" Ben was putting the mental puzzle together when he saw the third person sitting at the table between Xander and Decker.

It was Ben, or at least a hallucination of some kind. Ben couldn't figure out how else there could be two Bens at once.

While Ben noticed the newcomer, Other-Ben was oblivious to the conversation happening right in front of him. He sat there calmly swallowing spoonfuls of cereal completely ignoring the other three.

"Ha!" Xander applauded in excitement. "Now we're talking!"

"Okay." Ben pointed at Other-Ben with both hands. "Who the hell is this?"

"It's you." Decker took over next. "Or rather, you before you got stuck here. This is the last memory you possess that can be seen clearly. It's taken you this long just to bring enough fragments of your psyche together to form it."

Ben didn't get the chance to ask Decker to clarify what he meant by that.

Other-Ben sat up in his chair some, his hands coming up to grip either side of his head. Decker and Xander jumped to their feet and rushed around opposite sides of the table. Without a word, both men seized Ben by the arm and jerked him away from Other-Ben.

The second they did, Other-Ben's fists came down hard against the wood. Ben wasn't sure if the crack sound he heard was the wood splintering or Other-Ben's finger-bones. Other-Ben began taking deep breaths, the sound not unlike someone attempting to keep calm.

"This part isn't going to be pretty." Xander grimaced.

"Shut up." Other-Ben groaned low, voice almost begging. He repeated the words again and again but Ben couldn't see who he was talking to. He didn't seem aware of the other three men.

It was then that Ben saw her.

While Ben watched, Ryn appeared and leaned over Other-Ben's shoulder. She was either murmuring something in his ear or rubbing her cheek against him but Ben couldn't tell which. Other-Ben reacted be sweeping an arm at her, revealing Ryn as nothing more than an illusion.

"You're not real!" Ben swiped the cereal bowl off the table and hurled in the direction the false Ryn had been. The ceramic sailed through the air to explode into pieces against the cabinet.

"Ben." Ryn's disembodied voice echoed around the room in a breathy, almost seductive whisper. "I want you. Only you."

"SHUT UP!" Other-Ben was roaring at the top of his lungs. He grabbed more pieces from the table and threw them in every direction Ryn's voice seemed to come from. Which was all but everywhere.

When Other-Ben ran out of ammunition, he threw the kitchen stools. Soon after this, Ryn's image started appearing in every reflective surface in sight. Other-Ben broke the first mirror in sight with a single punch, the pieces of glass slicing into his flesh.

Other-Ben didn't stop there, every piece of glass in the house followed. Ben could see, while Xander and Decker hurried him out of the way of his twin's rampage, the terribly bleeding lacerations covering Other-Ben's hands. He was leaving blood stains everywhere.

Other-Ben ended where he began, at the kitchen table. He clutched his head in his hands, the blood beginning to soak into his hair and skin.

Ben could have sworn he felt it when Other-Ben slammed his own head down into the table.

"Can't torment me... if I can't hear you." Other-Ben laughed, smashing his head against the surface of the table a second time. Rising on shaky legs, he took off in a sprint, ramming his head into the wall. Recovering from the blow, he did it again and again until he could stand no longer. He stumbled a few steps before collapsing into unconsciousness on the floor.

Ben was well passed disturbed at this point.

"Your mind fought so hard against the influence of Ryn's song, it induced a psychotic break." Decker was solem as he stepped around the destruction.

"Why... couldn't I remember any of this before?"

"Think of your memories like these glass shards." Decker picked up a few pieces of the shattered glassware. While he spoke he moved the pieces about for Ben to see them fit each other. "You've been trying to shove the pieces together to get the image instead of putting like with like. The shards have been cutting your fingers. Fingers being a metaphor for your head, of course."

"Okay, so I'm having a really bad dream." Ben's skepticism was being stretched to the limit, but even he couldn't deny what Decker and Xander were showing him, along with everything else he'd seen already. "But why am I seeing you two, and why is Ryn out for my blood?"

"I'm like your best friend." Xander actually sounded offended. "You're damn right I'd be here to back you up."

"I can only theorize I am here because nobody save the two of us have been affected by the mermaid's song." Decker explained. "Your mind conjured me as a kindred spirit. Feelings about the real Aldon Decker be damned."

"That doesn't explain Maddie and Ryn."

"Got me there." Xander shrugged. "If you don't know, we won't know, either. We're tied to your subconscious, but with your head so screwed up, not even we can say for sure."

If Ryn's song was what put him here, it made sense for it to take her appearance inside the nightmare. Perhaps this was why she looked partially transformed and was completely feral. It wasn't actually her, rather a twisted and distorted memory of the real Ryn.

"But why do you two keep randomly appearing and disappearing?"

"Because we're not real, duh." Xander no longer had the stool to sit on, so he leaned against the far side of the kitchen table instead. "Everything you see, every person, is a creation of your mind. The only thing real here is you."

"Ryn seemed plenty real to me." Ben shivered, recalling Ryn's previous attack.

"Well, creation of your mind or not, you can be killed or hurt. Nothing else can, at least not by us." Decker added.

"See, watch this." With no further preamble, Xander pulled his fist back and slugged Decker as hard as he possibly could in the jaw. Decker's head moved from the strike, but when he turned back, there wasn't a mark on him. Not even a tiny bruise.

"That's..."

"Still unconvinced?" Xander picked up a piece of glass and stabbed himself in the hand. Ben was already lurching forward to stop him on reflex, but when Xander moved, it was revealed he had no injury. Despite Ben watching the edge pierce his flesh.

"When you shot Ryn earlier..."

"Exactly." Xander nodded. "I can't actually hurt her, and she couldn't hurt me. Best I could do was stun and knock her back. Not even my knife would have done much. Forced her to let go of my car, but nothing more."

"So what now? I just wait until Ryn finally runs me down?"

"The fact that Ryn's singing hasn't reduced you to a gibbering wreck blindly seeking her out is a good sign. It means you still have a chance." Decker looked to Ben. "The song's influence hasn't broken your will yet."

"There is only one way you can escape this place and go home." Xander reached for something beneath the table. He pulled out his father's old hunting rifle, the same weapon that mortally wounded Donna. "You have to kill Ryn."

* * *

 **Not quite sure on this one, for the life of me I couldn't get it to go how I wanted. Perfection is impossible so I always get as close as I can, but this one just wouldn't work for me. Maybe I'm just overthinking it.**

 **Next chapter will be our finale, the chapter I've been wanting to do since I started Jaws of Madness. I finally worked my way here. Depending on how it goes, I may have a final epilogue chapter after it but we'll see.**


	7. Lay Bare Part 1

**The computer lives! And I am finally almost done with this story. I will be happy when the last chapter is finished, to be completely honest.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Everything was ready, or at least as ready as Ben could make it. Time was neither a luxury he could afford nor risk. Not when Ryn could find him on her own at any time.

Holding Xander's rifle aloft, Ben fired a single bullet up into the air.

The boom was nearly deafening when it tore through the silence. Even had Bristol Cove not been empty, the sound would have carried quite far.

Certainly far enough for Ryn to hear no matter where she was lurking.

Ben wasn't about to wait for his hunter's arrival out in the open like an idiot. He broke into a sprint toward the nearby building. Taking the stairs, he arrived at the second level and the window he'd picked out for it's vantage point.

From here, Ben would have line of sight of most of the courtyard below. The statue in the middle might be an issue. If Ryn walked behind it, he'd lose sight of her, but that assumed she ever got that far before Ben made his move. At least the fog wasn't quite so thick here. It was odd, the cloud settled over Bristol Cove wasn't gone, but Ben found himself able to see a little further than earlier.

As with the last two times, the growing volume of Ryn's song served to herald her appearance. It wouldn't be much longer now before she came from the mist.

It was a pity Xander couldn't help him finish this. Unfortunately, as he had shown Ben before, Xander was incapable of harming Ryn, or being harmed by her. Annoying, but even dreamworlds had rules of their own, apparently.

Having already chambered another round into the rifle, Ben settled in to await Ryn's arrival.

Ben didn't have to wait for long.

The mermaid made not a sound as she slinked into the courtyard, eyes no doubt scanning every inch of her surroundings for her prey. Baring that statue, there really wasn't any place for somebody to hide.

While lacking in actual firearms training, Ben knew enough to handle Xander's rifle. He located Ryn in the scope after only a few seconds delay. He could see only her back, but Ben could tell by her body language she was sniffing the air in an attempt to locate his scent.

"Good luck." Ben said the words, but only in his head. Ryn was going to have a bit of trouble smelling anything, not after Ben dumped dozens upon dozens of perfume bottles about the place. Several of which he poured upon himself for good measure. The smell was almost overpowering for Ben, poor Ryn would have been knocked clear out by the intensity.

At least, she would, if this was reality. Instead, the mermaid let out an annoyed hiss and went back to hunting the old-fashioned way.

This was it, Ben had a perfectly clear view. Just one shot, one squeeze of the trigger, and Ben could go home and back to trying to repair the damage to his life. A slight twitch of the muscles and this nightmare could all be over.

Ben lined his sights up with Ryn's head. It would have been a wiser move to aim for center of body mass, training or no Ben knew that one, but a bullet anywhere save the head would bring far more pain to Ryn than was needed. This way, it would be over quick, and more importantly, painless. Ryn would never even know she'd been hit.

Ryn wouldn't have to suffer in her last moments like Donna did.

Ben had been a heartbeat away from pulling the trigger when the memory of Donna's fate crossed his mind. The mental image that followed of Ryn in the same position, bleeding out from a gunshot wound in the street struck Ben hard with the force of a meteor.

It's not real.

Doesn't it feel real?

This Ryn isn't real, either.

Isn't she real enough?

He wasn't actually going to kill her.

Does that matter?

The hesitation lasted just long enough to stall Ben, giving Ryn the opportunity to walk behind the statue and out of his sight. He waited for her to move out from around it, but after several minutes, she hadn't reappeared.

Cursing internally, Ben stepped away from the window to find a new vantage point. The rest of the second floor was no good, Ben had checked all the doors beforehand and found this to be the only one open. He would have to go back to the base level and try to circle around.

Try as Ben might, he couldn't find another spot. Everywhere was either locked, or chained shut. With no other choice left, he ventured outside into the courtyard.

Stepping as quietly as his human feet could, Ben crept around the statue with the rifle raised. Luck was on his side this time, Ryn's back was still to him. She seemed to be staring off into space, perhaps trying to locate Ben by sound.

Bringing Ryn into the sights of the scope, Ben prepared to fire…

Only to discover he couldn't.

She might be a feral monster out for his blood, she might by physically impossible to reason with, but she was still Ryn. Even if it freed Ben from the hell he found himself in, he couldn't bring himself to kill the mermaid. Whether she was real or not was irrelevant.

Another thought passed through Ben's mind then when he looked down at the rifle in his hands. Xander had been out for vengeance ever since the death of Sean. Of course, he would be the one to tell Ben he had to kill Ryn.

They were answering death with more death. This might be Xander's solution, but it was not Ben's.

Ben was still evaluating his options when he blinked once, twice, then he heard it before he saw it. An all too familiar taping of droplets hitting the ground. Only this time, the same came not from another person, but rather Ben's blood-soaked hands.

Having heard the dripping sound, Ryn pivoted on her heel to face Ben, an inhuman snarl escaping her lips. She didn't move, but Ben could see her every muscle tensing, preparing to pounce.

Ben still held the rifle up. He had time yet to shoot Ryn before she attacked. It was the only thing that could possibly save him now. She was close enough to make the shot easy, but also too close to allow any possibility of escape.

But maybe… escape wasn't the point, neither was Ryn's death.

"I… I think I understand, Ryn." Ben held his head low, eyes on the ground, as he approached the mermaid. "No more running. I get it now."

Ryn didn't make a noise, but her gaze was locked on Ben. He could feel it even if he couldn't see it.

"Why I'm here, why you're here." Ben eased himself down to his knees before Ryn.

Ryn waited for any sign of deception, but when none came, her hands shot up to grip the sides of Ben's head. He could feel her claws digging into his flesh, but still made no attempt to resist.

It was fitting, Ben mused internally. Donna was dead because of him, and here Ryn was, in the perfect spot to avenge her sister's murder. A more proper set up could not be fabricated.

There were any number of ways Ryn could finish the job. It would be child's play for her strength to crush his skull like a grape, maybe she wanted to tear into his brain with her claws, or she could simply yank his head off. Regardless of her method of choice, it would be over soon.

Ben closed his eyes and awaited the end.

He was quite surprised when not only did it not come, but Ben felt Ryn's talons turn into ordinary human fingers, the pressure letting up immensely at the same time. Her grip becoming a gentle touch as she pulled Ben's head closer to press softly against her stomach, almost cradling him.

Ben didn't know what to think at this new turn of events. When he finally willed himself to look up, he found Ryn staring down at him with a mix of sadness and relief. There wasn't a single sign of her mermaid features, not even a single scale.

"Ben." It was only a single word, a three letter one at that, but hearing it pass from Ryn's lips made Ben feel like a thousand-pound weight was lifted from his shoulders.

"Ryn, I…" Ben's breath caught in his throat. He honestly didn't know what to say, or even what he wanted to say.

"Ben start to see." Ryn almost lovingly ran her fingers through Ben's hair. "Start to understand."

"It's all my fault, isn't it?"

Ryn nodded solemnly, all previous traces of joy gone.

"I deserve this, I deserve to be punished."

"No."

"No?"

"Ben punish self too much." Ryn clarified. "Must forgive."

"But, I…" Ben's gaze fell to the ground. "I don't think I can."

Ryn, having none of that, took Ben by the chin with two fingers to force him to look back up at her. "Humans, my people, all make mistakes. Ben must forgive self."

Ben heard them before he saw them. Their presence was announced by the same steady drip drip as it was when Ben encountered them in the woods.

Rising to his feet, Ben didn't flee from the bloodied forms of Donna and Sean, not this time. He had already been running for far too long.

"Why?" Donna demanded.

Ben knew exactly what the mermaid was talking about. "I wanted to protect all the…"

"WHY?" Donna roar shook the nearby buildings.

"I… I wanted to impress Ryn." Ben forced himself to admit out loud. "By saving her, her sister, and the other two merpeople, I hoped she would think even better of me than she already did. To see me as… maybe something more."

Xander had fired the bullet that killed Donna, but it was Ben that tried to grab the gun from his friend. Had Ben acted differently, Donna would still be alive today. Ryn wouldn't have to be mourning her fallen sister.

Donna's glare softened little by little until her countenance took on a look of relief. "You under…stand."

"Why?" It was Sean's turn now.

"Xander already knew about the mermaids. The more he knew, the bigger a threat he posed to Ryn. I couldn't let him know any more than he already did." Ben didn't try to deflect this time, he knew it was pointless. "If I had told everyone just how deadly the merpeople were, maybe I could have gotten them to help me force Xander to back off. But I didn't, and you died because of it."

Sean's lips raised in a proud grin. "You get it."

As Ben watched, the blood coating his hands faded away until not a speck of the crimson fluid remained. Not just the blood, Donna and Sean slowly faded away like smoke caught in the wind until they too were gone.

"Ben." Ryn's arms wrapped around Ben's waist from behind. The mermaid's forehead coming to rest against his spine.

"I was drawn to you from the moment we met." Ben placed his hand atop Ryn's. "There was just something otherworldly about you, even before you sang. I…"

"How cute." It was Ben's voice, but most definitely not Ben speaking.

Whirling around, Ben was faced with the horrifying visage of Other-Ben. His body was battered and bloody, looking far worse than he had when Ben saw him last at his home. Then there were his eyes, there was a look of utter derangement within them that had Ben immediately pushing Ryn to stand behind him. It was not just because of how Other-Ben looked at them, either.

It was more the fact that Other-Ben was pointing the discarded rifle right at the pair.

"You actually think that admitting a few shameful truths is enough to save you?" Other-Ben cackled with mad glee. "The worst part is that you're actually that naive."

"Who…" Ben paused. "What are you?"

"I'm you." Other-Ben answered simply, his twisted smirk grew if that was possible.

"You." Ben mentally put the pieces together. "You're the one created by Ryn's song. It's you that's been hounding me, not Ryn."

"Oh, bravo." Other-Ben held the rifle with one hand while miming an applause. "Give this man a medal. Except, no, she didn't make me. You did."

"You were always there." Ben continued assembling the puzzle in his mind. "Ryn's song dragged you out into the open. She didn't create any feelings in me, just pulled them to the surface."

"Ding ding." Other-Ben cheered, grinning the like manic he appeared to be.

"What happens now?"

"Now? Now, congratulations are in order, Ben." Other-Ben mocked. "I think it's time you received your prize, don't you?"

There was no cover, nowhere for Ben to hide. The entire courtyard was a deathtrap Ben was now caught in. And if he did make a run for it, Ryn would be hit in his place.

If this was to be his final judgement for the sins he committed, then so be it. His last act was going to be shielding Ryn from himself. It was fate Ben was perfectly fine with.

Right as Other-Ben went to fire, he was clubbed over the head from behind by a piece of firewood. He crumpled to a heap on the ground, revealing a furious Maddie standing over him. When he attempted to rise, Maddie gave him a swift, and horribly brutal, kick to the ribs.

"Bastard." Maddie scooped up the rifle and, with strength she never would have had in reality, broke the wood of the weapon over her knee like a twig.

Ben couldn't help smiling at the sight of his girlfriend. There she goes again, saving him from himself.

Maddie glared at Ben for a whole two seconds before her lips lifted into an ear to ear smile. To Ben, it was quite possible one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. He barely had time to open his arms before Maddie was crushing him in an embrace.

"I think it's about time we got our boy home. Don't you think, Ryn?" Maddie took Ben by the hand but her eyes were on Ryn.

"Yes." Ryn took Ben's other and together, the two women pulled Ben along behind them. "Ben go home now."

"It can't be that easy." Ben was skeptical, but he knew these two would not to lead him astray.

"Why not?" Maddie glanced over her shoulder. "You were never a prisoner, Ben."

As Ryn and Maddie led Ben along the streets of Bristol Cove, Ben began noticing the change. The fog was clearing up with each blink of his eyes. Before long, it was completely gone. The environment, which had been so gray and dull before, suddenly seemed more vibrant. They reached the docks just in time to see the clouds part, revealing the menagerie of colors making up the sunrise.

"Pretty." Ryn commented as the wave of sunshine passed over the trio.

"Almost home, Ben." Maddie squeezed Ben's hand tightly as they continued on.

At first, Ben thought they might be leading him to his house boat. But they were at the wrong area of the docks for that. If anything, it was a nondescript section of the harbor. Whatever it's significance, it was where he needed to be.

The three were almost to the edge of the pier when Other-Ben stepped out from behind a corner.

Other-Ben was almost unrecognizable. Gone was the blood, the look of mania, the wounds, they were all absent. Other-Ben more resembled Ben in his day to day life than he did the lunatic he had been.

"Congratulations, Ben." Other-Ben applauded, but there was no mockery in his voice this time. The smile he wore even seemed genuine. "You have learned to face your guilt and regret, but you have one more challenge left. You won't find it here, though."

With that, Other-Ben vanished into a cloud of vapor much in the manner Donna and Sean had.

While puzzled by his doppelganger's final words, Ben had other fish to fry.

"You trust Ryn and Maddie, yes?" The two women had led Ben to the edge of the dock, the expanse of the ocean looming before them.

Looking down at the mermaid, Ben didn't have to think about his answer. "I do."

Ryn said no more, instead moving to encircle him with her arms while pressing her body to his front. Maddie did the same to Ben, but opposite of Ryn.

With not a single word more, Ryn and Maddie pulled Ben into the cool water of the ocean.

* * *

 **Alas, this is only part 1 of our finale here. There is, however, only one chapter remaining and this story is at last finished.**


	8. Lay Bare Part 2

**At last, I have finally reached the final chapter. I have to say, I'm glad this one is over with. It's been a rough slog trying to finish it, and I fear the quality probably suffered because of it. However, I cannot stand leaving a story unfinished for a year so I powered through anyway.**

 **None of this would have been possible without the amazing comments left by readers Krachwarn and Alice. Were it not for them, I would have given up on this a couple chapters in. Never underestimate what having two, or even just one, amazing readers can do.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

A month, a whole damn month without a single sign from Ben. Maddie wanted to remain hopeful at first, she wanted to believe Ben would wake any moment and life could start getting back to normal, but this was not to be.

Maddie could probably learn a lesson or two from Ryn. The mermaid rarely left Ben's bedside if she could avoid it but showed not a single inkling of worry. She was like a mountain in the storm, no force on this earth was going to budge her hope for Ben's return. Maddie wished she had a fraction of that strength.

Speaking of Ryn…

Maddie spent weeks trying everything within her power to avoid conversation with Ryn but now that she wanted to speak to her, Maddie found herself unable to.

Helen's words rattled around inside Maddie's brain without mercy. The older woman was absolutely right, of course, but what to do with this new knowledge had Maddie struggling for a decision of how to handle this.

Apologize? Ben was still out cold, and there didn't seem to be any words in the English language that were adequate for how badly Maddie had hurt Ryn. At the same time, Maddie couldn't just start acting like nothing ever happened to drive them apart.

"I'm going to check out the vending machines for a drink." Maddie announced, having just finished her latest novel. "You want anything?"

"No." Ryn's answer was simple, thankfully not calling attention to Maddie directly talking to her.

Leaving the room, Maddie trekked her way down the hall. Helen's words echoing through her thoughts with evert step.

"What do I do…" Maddie sighed, picking out a bottle of… something. She wasn't really paying all that much attention. The quest for a drink was more just to distract herself. One muffled thump later, and the bottle was waiting in the tray at her feet.

So distracted she was with her emotional turmoil, Maddie didn't see the reflection in the glass until after she kneeled down to retrieve her drink.

"Ryn? Everything okay?" Maddie felt like a complete moron for asking it, but it had been her first thought.

Ryn said nothing, her chin tilted down so that her face was almost completely curtained off by the waves of her brunette locks.

"Ryn?" Thinking Ryn hadn't heard her the first time, Maddie spoke a little louder. Ryn in such a state was already unnerving Maddie horribly. She hadn't appeared this distraught since Donna…

Ben!

"Maddie…" Ryn spoke at last, just as the panic welled up within Maddie's chest. Her unsteady, near broken, tone wasn't doing Maddie's lack of peace of mind any favors.

Fearing the worst, Maddie was a split second from rushing back to Ben's room when she heard Ryn speak again.

"Maddie… hate Ryn."

"What?" Of all things Maddie expected Ryn to say, that certainly hadn't been among them. "I…"

Whatever response Maddie would have concocted died on her tongue when Ryn tilted her head up. It occurred to Maddie that she'd never seen Ryn cry before, she even wondered if mermaids were physically capable of such a thing. The tears currently streaming down Ryn's cheeks were more than adequate evidence that yes, mermaids can cry.

Not only did Maddie now know that Ryn could cry, she'd already decided it was one of the most heart-wrenching sights she'd ever seen.

"Sister gone." Ryn was fully trembling now, her body plagued with quiet sobs. "Home gone, Ben never wake, Maddie hate Ryn…"

"Ryn… I don't hate you." Maddie had certainly been acting like it for the last month, much to her self-directed disgust.

"Ryn need Ben and Maddie." Ryn didn't seem to hear Maddie's reassurance. She didn't appear hysterical, but Maddie knew mermaids were not all that expressive when it came to emotions. "Not Ben. Not Maddie. Ben and Maddie."

No matter how cold hearted a person was, no matter how angry, nobody could have looked on and ignored it when faced with a person so upset. Maddie's only problem was she still didn't know what to do or say.

"Ryn need Ben and Maddie." Ryn took a step closer, reaching for Maddie. The taller female didn't miss he way the mermaid hesitated before touching her.

Unsure of Ryn intentions but willing to humor her, Maddie moved herself into Ryn's reach. The mermaid's hands only stopped upon reaching Maddie's shoulders.

Maddie was firmly rooted in place when Ryn's tear filled eyes found hers. There was so much raw sorrow and… something Maddie couldn't identify, in those cerulean orbs, Maddie couldn't have looked away if she tried.

The entire situation was eerily similar to that day Maddie was left alone with Ryn just before she had dinner with Ben's mother. Ryn had pinned her with a similar stare before kissing her. At the time, Ryn had mistaken it for a way humans said goodbye. They hadn't a chance to correct her until later.

Before Maddie could discern Ryn's thoughts, the mermaid leaned up on her toes.

The kiss was a far cry from the last one the two shared. There was no confidence in it whatsoever and a lot of apprehension. As if Ryn was expecting Maddie to shove her away at any time.

The kiss itself was quick, and completely unromantic. Once Ryn pulled almost a full step away, the taste of salt from Ryn's tears lingered when Maddie's tongue brushed her lip. Regardless, it still sent tingles down Maddie's spine for reasons Maddie had yet to determine.

Maddie was still processing what just happened when she saw Ryn swaying unsteadily on her feet.

"Ryn n… need Ben and… Maddie…"

Had Maddie's reflexes been any slower, Ryn would have fallen right to the floor. Instead, Ryn landed safely in Maddie's arms. It was a close call, though. Maddie had almost forgotten how heavy Ryn was.

Thinking quickly, Maddie glanced around and was thankful for the late hour. Not a doctor, patient, or visitor in sight. Shifting Ryn's considerable weight around, Maddie hefted the mermaid onto her back and carried her back to the safety of Ben's room.

Maddie did her best to be gentle, but she accidentally dropped Ryn a little too hard onto the couch in Ben's room. Not that it mattered, the mermaid was completely out of it.

The first theory to cross Maddie's mind was that Ryn was nearing the end of her time on land again. One quick examination proved this to not be the case. There wasn't a speck of the rash or dried skin that always preceded such a thing. Although all Maddie could check were Ryn's arms, neck, and around her collar, these were the spots that always went first.

Only for the briefest of moments did Maddie consider a more thorough look over under Ryn's shirt but she decided against it immediately. Ryn would understand but it still felt like a terrible invasion of her privacy.

Soothingly brushing the hair from Ryn's face, Maddie did her best to wipe away the stray tears that were already drying upon Ryn's cheeks. While doing so, Maddie caught sight of the dark circles beneath Ryn's eyes. She'd been so focused on her own woes, that Maddie hadn't even noticed them this entire time.

Putting the clues together, Maddie discerned Ryn wasn't drying out, she was sleep deprived. While they were not allowed to remain with Ben twenty-four hours a day, Maddie had zero difficulty imagining Ryn sitting beside Helen's phone every hour of the night waiting for news whether it was good or bad. If she'd been doing this all month, Maddie was amazed the mermaid had gone so long without crashing.

Maybe she had, and Maddie hadn't seen it.

Thinking back to Ryn's words in the hall, Maddie was hit with another painful truth. This entire time, she'd assumed Ryn's optimism and faith everything would be okay was unshakable. As it turned out, Ryn's hope wasn't quite as strong as she thought.

Ryn may have begun that way, but with each passing day she cracked a little more. Piece by piece, she broke until her body and spirit could take no more punishment.

Punishment that Maddie had been contributing to with her aloof and dismissive behavior. Helen had been right, but it wasn't just Ben that Maddie had abandoned.

Then there was that kiss! It wasn't like Maddie didn't have enough emotional turbulence to work out.

"Sleep." Maddie whispered, her thumb caressing Ryn's prominent cheekbone ever so slightly. Leaning down, she softly planted a kiss on Ryn's forehead. Lacking any pillow they could spare, Maddie bundled up her jacket and slipped it beneath Ryn's head so she could at least have something under her head.

With Ryn squared away, Maddie once again took a seat at Ben's bedside. Taking Ben's hand in hers, Maddie ran the pads of her thumbs tracing over the bumps of his knuckles.

It took Maddie a full five minutes before she even realized she'd taken what had been previously claimed by unspoken agreement as Ryn's chair. Oh well, if Maddie was keeping guard over the both of them, she might as well be sitting in the chief watchwoman's spot.

With Ryn asleep and no books left to distract herself, Maddie was left at the mercy of her current worst enemy. Her own mind.

"I don't know what to do anymore." Maddie confessed to the sleeping Ben. It wasn't the first time Maddie had spoken to Ben since his admittance to the hospital, but Ryn had done most of the talking to him thus far. "I messed up real bad. "I should never have left you. I can't believe I blamed Ryn for this when you're here because of me."

It was quite telling that Ryn had spoken more to Ben, coma and all, than Maddie and Ryn had to each other. Yet another thing to regret about this whole mess.

"I'm so sorry." Maddie dropped her head to land atop Ben's hand with a soft thump. "It's all my fault."

There was no telling how long Maddie stayed like that. When she heard the sound, she at first thought she'd fallen asleep and the staff was coming in to tell her it was time to leave. Except, the sound wasn't coming from the door.

It came from Ben's bed.

"Mads?" Ben's voice was raspy from disuse. "That you?"

"Ben?" Maddie blinked once, twice. Her body caught up with her five senses after a brief delay. "Ben!" She jumped up from her chair so violently that it was knocked over to clatter to the floor. "I… better go get one of the doctors."

It wasn't the Maddie wasn't happy to see Ben awake, but rather she was almost too scared to face him right now. In the end, it didn't matter. Maddie wasn't given a choice.

"Wait." Ben's hand shot out and caught Maddie's wrist. His grip was weak, Maddie could have broken free with the tiniest effort, but it might as well have been strong as diamond. Maddie wasn't going anywhere. "Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital." Maddie cleared her throat. "You've been out of it for a while."

"Out of it?"

"You've… been in a coma." Maddie chose honesty, but she was a little surprised Ben was so coherent. She knew what his next question was before he even asked it. "One month."

"But… I'm awake now?" Maddie couldn't recall the last time Ben had sounded so terrified.

"Of course you're awake. You've had us worried sick, you know."

"Us?"

"Here." It took Maddie a bit, but she found the controller that worked the hospital bed. Pressing a few buttons, she raised the bed so that Ben was sitting up more. "Ryn's been here the whole time."

Ben visibly relaxed at the sight of the mermaid sleeping on the couch. "Any… problems?"

Oh, there had been a crapload of problems. Maddie's first instinct was that, but she didn't think Ben needed to know that. "Everything's been quiet here."

"You're lying, Maddie."

Damn Ben knowing her tells!

"It's fine." Maddie quickly defended. "Everybody's safe." That at least wasn't a lie. They may not be okay, but they were safe.

"Okay." Ben obviously wasn't satisfied with that answer, but probably didn't have the mental clarity to pursue further.

By some bizarre coincidence, that was the moment Ryn stirred from her forced nap.

"Look who's awake." Maddie announced while the mermaid looked around, groggily trying to assess her surroundings. Her eyes fell to the couch and Maddie's jacket beside her. "Ryn, over here."

Maddie knew mermaids were fast in the water, but she wondered how they compared to humans while on land. Upon seeing Ben awake, Ryn crossed the room faster than Maddie would have thought physically possible.

Rushing up, Ryn jumped onto the bed, landing atop Ben. He grunted in surprise while the mermaid straddled him and threw her arms around him.

"Whoa, easy." Maddie lightly tugged on Ryn's shirt. It was an empty action, really. Maddie didn't have the muscle to pry the mermaid loose if she didn't want to be. "He's still pretty weak."

"Ben awake?" Ryn loosened her hold, but remained close in Ben's face, her hands running all over him. "Ben okay?"

Ben took a hard look at Ryn, like he was searching for something Maddie couldn't see. It wasn't long before his lips split into a fond smile. "I'm okay, Ryn."

Ryn let out a soft hiss of joy and took Ben's head in her hands. Pulling him close, she pressed her forehead to his. A familiar gesture of intimacy for the mermaid. One that Maddie found herself having no problems with right now. "I am happy."

"I'm glad to see you, too." It took an effort to do so, but Ben moved one hand up to lay over Ryn's shoulder.

While Ben and Ryn seemed to be having a happy reunion, Maddie found herself feeling like she didn't belong. The exhilaration of Ben rejoining the world being overshadowed by Maddie's guilt.

Maddie found herself being dragged from the hole she was burying herself into when Ryn grabbed and pulled her partway onto the bed. Ben was caught off guard too when Ryn held the two humans into the same near bone crushing embrace.

"Ryn need Ben and Maddie." Ryn whispered, only letting go a little so as to not hurt the pair.

There were those words again. Ryn need Ben and Maddie. Not Ben. Not Maddie. Ben and Maddie. Those were the words Ryn used, but what did she mean by that? It wasn't like Ryn literally needed them. It was surely taking a rough adjustment period, but she seemed to be doing okay with Helen. Not counting Ben's current condition.

Watching Ryn interact with the two of them now, the epiphany struck Maddie like an out of control train.

"Oh, my god."

* * *

"Seriously? That simple?" Maddie was skeptical, Ben would be too if he was being told this. "You just had to jump in the ocean? No way."

"I don't think it was that simple." Ben rolled his eyes. "But yeah, that was the last thing I remember before the hospital."

"Yeah, well, welcome to the wonderful world of dream logic." Maddie shrugged. "It isn't supposed to make sense."

"No kidding." Ben laughed. He'd told Maddie bits and pieces of what he remembered from his coma dreams since leaving the hospital, but it wasn't until tonight he'd gone over the entire story start to end.

Speaking of leaving the hospital, it felt damn good to be sleeping in his own bed again. At least his physical therapy hadn't been too bad. It definitely could have been worse if he'd been under longer than a month, but Ben preferred not to dwell on what could have been.

"You comfy, Ryn?" Maddie looked across Ben where Ryn was nestled into Ben's opposite side, her head on Ben's chest. To anyone looking, it would be easy to mistake her for being asleep.

Ryn's only answer was a tiny nod of the head. She was comfy alright, so much so she didn't even want to move if she could avoid it.

Smiling down at the mermaid, Ben's hand resumed stroking her hair. She let out a quiet hiss of approval but otherwise didn't react.

"So…" Ben watched while Maddie ran her fingertips over Ryn's hand. The mermaid shifted her hand to take Maddie's in hers, giving it a mild squeeze. "We never did finish that talk."

"What talk?" Maddie brought Ryn's hand closer to give it a kiss on the back.

"You know." Ben watched the exchange between the two women. "That talk."

"What's there to talk about?" Maddie sat up, but held on to Ryn's hand.

"I don't know." Ben motioned with his chin to Ryn, then to Ryn and Maddie's entwined hands. "Maybe this?"

"Nothing to talk about." Maddie shrugged again. "You and I love each other, and Ryn loves both of us."

"Ben and Maddie are love." Ryn added from where she lay.

"Exactly. Ben, Ryn isn't even human." Maddie's comment was enough to make Ryn lift her head. "I didn't say that was a bad thing, merely a fact." That was enough to make Ryn lay her head back down. "Nothing about…" Maddie waved her free hand to indicate the three of them in the bed. "This, is going to be normal, we're way past that now. This… this is something different."

"And what is this, exactly?" Ben arched an eyebrow.

"Whatever the hell we want it to be." Maddie thumped her fist on her leg. "Screw what society and everybody else says."

"If I had the use of both of my hands, I'd be clapping." Ben made a motion with his hands like he was applauding, but he was a hand short. The hand that had been petting Ryn's hair was now wrapped around the mermaid and she wasn't letting it go any time soon.

Ben thought back to Other-Ben's parting words, about his last challenge not being… wherever he was. At first, Ben assumed his twin was talking about Maddie or Ryn. He expected their reunion to be rocky at best.

Rocky didn't come close to describing it. Maddie had changed back to how she was before Ryn arrived in Bristol Cove. She'd also apologized almost two dozen times, Ben counted, for not staying while he was affected with the siren song. For some reason she took it hard what happened to land him in the hospital.

If there was one thing Ben had learned from this whole experience, it was that blame and regret were nasty pieces of work. Doling out the former would solve nothing, and keeping the latter in would eat you alive from the inside out.

Now, all had been long forgiven, and it was going to stay that way.

The song itself seemed to have disappeared, too. He'd had no desire to hear it, nor hallucinations of Ryn, or anything related to the song since waking from his coma. Maybe surviving that nightmare shook the cobwebs loose from his mind or it just wore off while he was out. Either way, Ben wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Ryn had changed too upon Ben's awakening. Gone were the days where she would hold back from being affectionate. If she wanted to kiss one of them, she did it. For someone who didn't fully comprehend human customs, she'd made it clear that Ben and Maddie were hers.

Much like Maddie's apologies, Ben had lost count of the number of times Ryn told him she would "never leave again".

Ben fully expected Maddie to be grumpy about Ryn's new behavior. He received the shock of his life when Maddie not only accepted it, she liked it.

Perhaps it wasn't the reunion Other-Ben meant, but rather this new chapter of their lives, this new relationship Ben, Maddie, and Ryn were starting. But how could he have known about that if he was only a creation of Ben's subconscious mind?

Uh… too much thinking about the irrational was making his head hurt again. Best not to overthink it.

"You guys going to be here when I wake up?" Ben knew the answer, but he liked hearing it from his girlfriends anyway.

"Always." Maddie kissed Ben on the cheek.

"I never leave." Ryn repeated the act on Ben's other cheek.

With that, Ben allowed himself to drift off to peaceful and loving dreams.

* * *

 **I am finally done! Hate to say it, but I am so glad this story is over with. Each chapter has been a nasty slog that just drags on and on. The whole thing still gnaws at me like its poorly written but I get that on most of my works.**

 **I knew I'd never be able to go until season 2 came out, but I'd hoped to last a while longer. But when the readers disappear there's no point. Hopefully they will all return with the next season. I already have a bunch of works planned, but I'm going to save them for season 2s readers.**

 **And speaking of readers, I've said this before but I'm going to say it again. This story would have been discontinued were it not for the amazing comments of Krachwarn and Alice. It kinda feels like I wrote it just for them, but I guess if they're my only commenters then I guess I did. They're amazing (and long) comments were enough to keep me going and make any slog through the written mire worthwhile. For someone who relies so heavily on reader reviews/comments, not getting any was disastrous. But let this be a lesson to you all, it doesn't take that much.**

 **I go now to join Siren in hibernation, at least until season 2 comes out. It is time for me to take my leave, but when Siren returns, so too shall I. See you all next year.**


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